US officials say White House warned Chinese shipping companies about ‘untraceable’ vessels carrying Iranian oil
- Washington sources say Chinese shippers warned against sanctions busting
- Cosco denies US claims that its ships sailed without operational transponders
The United States has warned Chinese shipping companies against turning off their vessels’ radio transponders to hide Iranian oil shipments in violation of US sanctions, two senior White House officials said.
“We’ve been messaging very heavily to the shipping companies, you don’t want to do this, it’s not worth it,” said one. “It’s incredibly dangerous and irresponsible behaviour.”
China is the largest remaining buyer of Iranian oil after US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Tehran’s main export. Sanctions were tightened in May in an effort to drive Iran’s oil sales to zero.
The US said the measures were intended to quash Iran’s nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile programme and influence in Syria, Iraq and other countries. Its oil exports have fallen to fewer than 400,000 barrels per day from about 2.5 million bpd.
At the end of last month, the US imposed sanctions on five Chinese individuals and two Chinese Cosco Shipping Corporation subsidiaries, claiming they had transported Iranian crude oil in violation of the sanctions.
Fourteen Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) vessels, about a third of its fleet, stopped sending tracker data from their automatic identification systems (AIS) between September 30 and October 7, information provided by Refinitiv Eikon showed.
Washington said on Tuesday that it had independently verified that Cosco had been shutting off the transponders aboard its ships.
Cosco Dalian’s oil tankers switch off tracers after US sanctions imposed, data shows
All but three of the ships have become transponder visible since October 9. The latest locations for very large crude carriers Yuan Shan Hu and Cosglad Lake were unavailable between October 8 and Wednesday, while the Aframax-sized tanker Yang Mei Hu has been untraceable since October 11, data showed.
Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) said that none of its vessels had turned off their AIS controllers or stopped sending AIS signals.
“Dalian Tanker will continue to adhere to applicable laws and regulations in the conduct of its business operations,” the company said.
The International Maritime Organisation requires vessels to use transponders for safety and transparency. Crews can turn off the devices if there is a danger of piracy or similar hazards.
It was unclear what the US could do to stop the tanker crews from turning off transponders. It has warned shipping companies, energy companies and port officials to be wary of trades in Iranian oil, in some cases telling them they could face sanctions for doing so.
Washington believed that sanctions were on the verge of causing an economic depression in Iran, one of the officials said.
Iran has years of experience dealing with sanctions. Some analysts claimed Tehran may be attempting to ride out the economic pain until the November 2020 US presidential election, hoping Trump will lose and the next president will take a softer line on Tehran.
US to send more troops to Saudi Arabia after attacks on oil facilities
“If they calculate that there is going to be [a new president] and they are incorrect, that’s bad,” the second official said. “Because I don’t think anybody thinks that they could make it another four years after next November under this kind of sanctions regime.”
Trump said he wanted initial talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, without preconditions, to see whether there is a chance for a deal to ease tensions between the two countries, one official said. The two leaders did not meet at last month’s United Nations General Assembly gathering.
The US said on Friday it was to send about 3,000 additional military personnel to Saudi Arabia to strengthen defences after attacks on oil facilities last month, which were blamed on Iran. Tehran denies any role.
